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Original poster

Dreamer of dreams,born out of my due time, Why should I strive to set the crooked straight. Wm Morris

771 replies

indignatio · 28/02/2007 16:05

Hopefully the link from the other thread will work

My stats

ds is 4.5 - summer born
In reception class

Has issues with:-
Easy distractability (school work and practical tasks)
Concentration problems when not totally engaged by something (95% of the time)
Fidgeting
Getting "lost" in the middle of a complicated sentence/explaination.
Bossy manner
Isolation at school
Poor eye contact
Repetition of sentences until he hears the acknowledgement
No herding instinct

On the positive
Very loving boy
Exceptional reader for his age
Good at maths
Lots of "home" friends
If gripped by something, can concentrate on it for ages

dx:
teacher initially thought he might have dyspraxia - no longer thinks so.
I consider that he has more add traits, but would not go so far as to say he has add.
SENCO to informally assess him next week and then meeting to be arranged with parents, teacher and senco shortly thereafter.

Not sure what else I should put in.

OP posts:
Hallgerda · 14/06/2007 21:20

That's great news, indignatio - hope all goes well .

maggiems, I hope your DTs had a good birthday.

castlesintheair, I'll e-mail you shortly.

sphil · 15/06/2007 17:49

Just come back from first parents' meeting at DS1's new school and am walking on air! Rather than being flummoxed and frustrated by him like his old teacher (though she loved him at the same time!) his new teacher and SENCO see him as someone with weaknesses in some areas - handwriting mainly, eye contact when listening and organisation - and strengths in others - reading, attitude, vocabulary, memory. They are completely confident that they can help him with the things he finds hard and don't seem to find him unusual at all. They're not even intending to put him on the SEN register, just to give him extra help where it's needed.

Quite a few of the things that were a problem at his old school are just not any more - apparently he always finishes his work now - and he's become much more socially integrated in the last week. It's clear that his teacher has been keeping a real eye on him socially and working very hard on his behalf. It's such a fab school - we were very aware that it was Friday afternoon and we didn't want to keep them for too long but his teacher was prolonging the meeting, telling us little anecdotes about DS1. I had to be restrained from embracing her and covering her with kisses.... .

Oh and this morning DS2 had an induction morning at the special school next door and as part of that we went to the m/s school's 'singing assembly'. Whole school in the hall, doing signed singing - fantastic!

castlesintheair · 16/06/2007 08:45

That is lovely news Sphil. I'm so pleased for you and DS. It sound's like a fabulous school. Do you mind if I ask if it's private? What size are the classes? Please ignore me if you don't wish to divulge, I'm just particularly interested at the moment as we have a big dilemma approaching: whether to keep DS in his mainstream school with classes of 30 or move him. I lay awake all night worrying about it last night - a big tick in the "overprotective/neurotic mother" box for me

Hallgerda · 16/06/2007 08:46

sphil, that's great .

maggiems · 16/06/2007 10:15

Sphil - lovely news. So glad everything is doing well. It sounds like a great school.I must say I long for that "walking on air" feeling.

My Dts had their birthday party yesterday. I always dread such events as something always happens with Dt2 that makes my heart sink. However it went fine apart from Dt1 and 2 making a fuss about getting toys that they had already in pass the parcel.
Other than that things went well. Dt2 seemed to mix well and played with others and nobody seemed to pick on him. All in all it was fine. The worst bit - 24 presents to unwrap and find a home for!

sphil · 16/06/2007 18:11

Castles - it's a large state school (400 children) and classes are between 25 and 28 I think. DS1's year (1) is the smallest year, so his class is about 25. I wonder if one of the reasons they're so good is that they have a lot of liaison with the special school and they have a language unit of their own. This means there's a wide cross section of kids in the school, an excellent level of staff expertise and high levels of staffing (because of the funding for the children with SEN). They also work very hard on things like differentiation of work, class groupings, social skills etc. I can tell you which school it is if you e-mail me - did you get my e-mail re the spreadsheet?

Maggiems - it sounds as if the party went very well. DS1's 5th birthday (last year) was marked by him refusing to play the party games and getting in a huff when he didn't win, then telling me (flat on my back with party-induced exhaustion) that he didn't really enjoy it because there was 'too much grown up organisation' !

castlesintheair · 17/06/2007 14:06

sphil, no I didn't get your email, please try again! [email protected]
We have 3 dreamers on it now, all looking spookily similar ...

I would love to hear more about your DS's school (probably have to decide in a few weeks whether to keep him at local mainstream school or move to language unit attached to another school a few miles away). Would appreciate your thoughts on it (if you have any!) but don't want to bang on here too much so will ask you when I get your email. Thanks

sphil · 17/06/2007 18:40

Oops - typed yahoo.co.uk instead of hotmail.co.uk. have tried again.

castlesintheair · 24/06/2007 08:08

There's a spreadsheet with 5 of us on it now. Any more contributors? What should I do with it, post it on here? Advice please!

Original poster
indignatio · 24/06/2007 08:34

Castles - my personal view is that the spreadsheet (in all its glory) should just be sent to those who have added their dc to the spreadsheet. Other views ?

OP posts:
maggiems · 24/06/2007 09:10

I agree with Indignatio.

I have a paed and physio appt tomorrow for Dt2 which I am dreading. Got school reports on Friday and I havent had the courage to open them yet. How much of a coward am I?

castlesintheair · 24/06/2007 09:33

Ok will just keep it as an e-mail thing.

Good luck tomorrow maggie. Go on, open the reports! Know how you feel though, I'm the same.

maggiems · 24/06/2007 19:17

Thanks castles.
Unfortunately my mind has been elsewhere all day as my FIL died suddenly this morning.
DH distraught. Boys ok, I thought they would be upset but I suppose they are a bit young.
We normally visit on Sunday's but the boys and DH took Granny and Grandad for lunch and a drive yesterday instead as I was working. This morning FIL was saying to MIL how much he had enjoyed the day so some small comfort to DH I hope.

I am still taking Dt2 for his appt.

singersgirl · 24/06/2007 19:27

So sorry to hear about your FIL.

sphil · 24/06/2007 19:40

So sorry Maggiems. What a shock for you and DH.

castlesintheair · 25/06/2007 07:25

Sorry to hear your news maggiems. What a shock for you all.

Original poster
indignatio · 25/06/2007 11:10

I am so sorry Maggiems. Cyber hugs to you and you DH

OP posts:
maggiems · 26/06/2007 19:42

Thank you all for your messages. DH and MIL doing ok. Funeral tomorrow. Took Dt2 for his appointment on Monday. Not much to report really. Physio said the same thing as the OT's at the last session. Dt2 is a "bendy" boy and the main problem is his trunk and the fact that he finds it difficult to support himself when sitting and standing on one foot, She said all his skills were there but that a lot of effort is spent doing physical stuff leaving little time to focus on other things . he is going to have some physio during the summer. The paed is going to see him again in October. If his concentration is no better she said we may have to think about investigating further.I said you mean ADD amd she asked me if I thought he had this. She said that it wasnt possible to have an opinion on this in the current setting that she was seeing in as he was very cooperative etc. There had been the suggestion at the last session that a new team was coming on board and going to be coming into schools in September but thats not going to be ready then.

Oh another thing. They tested his heart and they detected what they think is an innocent heart murmer, at least in 99% of cases it is. So another thing to worry about. ECG next week to rule out anything there.

he also is flat footed!

Bink · 27/06/2007 21:26

Maggie - you have been thrown a lot in one go, I am so sorry. I hope the funeral went as well as it could - after such a sudden loss I expect it would be a bit shell-shocked. Will there be a memorial service later?

Let us know how the ECG goes? Loads of people (inc. me) have a murmur that is entirely benign & doesn't affect anything in life. Great news about the physio - I hope dt2 finds it fun.

And randomly, this has reminded me to get an ancient wobble board out of the cupboard for ds (who is having the longest run of good school behaviour in his career so far - should I post that? - Fates! you are hereby tempted)

sphil · 27/06/2007 22:57

Hope funeral went OK Maggie (well you know what I mean). I had a heart murmer dx as a child too - as an adult they did more investigations and it turned out to be prolapsed mitral valve - v common and completely harmless.

sphil · 27/06/2007 22:59

murmur not murmer! Just been to pub is my excuse...

castlesintheair · 28/06/2007 07:50

Hope you got through it maggie xxx

Congrats to your DS Bink. Know what you mean about tempting fate so I'll just say we got DS's school report yesterday and I've just about stopped crying "courage" was the word that really set me off ...

sphil · 28/06/2007 18:20

Just been in for DS1's open afternoon and am blown away by the improvement in his work - I could actually read 90% of his writing! More importantly he was so enthusiastic about showing us his work and talked very fluently about everything he'd been doing. They had lots of photos on the whiteboard as a slideshow and it really shows how much he's throwing himself into activities, even dance, which as you might guess, is not his favourite thing!

The two Yr 1 classes are mixed up next year and each child is asked to write down the names of two friends he/she wants to be with. DS1's teacher knows I've been a bit worried about him socially so she took me aside and told me in confidence that the two friends he'd chosen had also both chosen him! That probably pleased me more than anything.

Will have to carry a rabbit's foot around for a while now....

chocolateteapot · 28/06/2007 18:27

Just sticking my head back in on this thread to ask how you are doing in Somerset Sphil ? (I was Kittypickle, we've briefly met on threads in the past I think) We are moving up soon, DD is starting school on 16th July so only a couple of weeks till she starts. We'll be a bit further up from where you are I think, she's going to school in the village which has a college for boys with Dyslexia if that makes any sense (probably doesn't unless you know it).

I am vaguely panicking about the whole change of school thing but the new one is really lovely and DD has made a lot of progress recently so hopefully will settle in well, hope that isn't just wishful thinking.

chocolateteapot · 28/06/2007 18:27

Sorry, meant to say it's fantastic to hear that your DS is doing so well